I'm pretty sure that earnings from pre paid investments are paid...

I'm pretty sure that earnings from pre paid investments are paid to the company as revenue each year. Therefor the value of each pre paid funeral doesn't increase over time. So its debatable if pre paids are an asset or a liability.

@Thrifty

With respect, I think there is some confusion in your statement.

The accounting of pre-paid funerals is explained very clearly in InvoCare’s 2016 Annual Report.

From page 49:

“The Group enters into prepaid contracts to provide funeral, burial and cremation services in the future and funds received are placed in trust and are not recognised as revenue until the service is performed. Refer to Note 1(n)."

And then from Note 1(n), on page 50:

"Prepaid contracts are tripartite agreements whereby the Group agrees to deliver a specified funeral, cremation or burial service at the time of need and the beneficiary invests the current price of the service to be delivered with a financial institution and conditionally assigns the benefit to the Group.
The Group records the value of the invested funds as an asset and revalues the invested funds to fair value at the end of each reporting period. The Group initially recognises a liability at the current selling price of the service to be delivered and increases this liability to reflect the change in selling prices to reflect the best estimate of the expenditure required to settle the obligation at the end of each reporting period.
When the service is delivered, the liability is derecognised. The initially recorded liability amount is included in revenue and the price increases recognised since initial recognition are recorded as a reduction in the cost of service delivery."

Therefore, the value of each pre-paid funeral does change over time and it can be either a net asset or a net liability, depending both on the performance of the funds under management and on the revaluation of the expected service costs.

Hope this helps clarify matters.

Cheers